(Posted 7-5-26)
Greetings From The Booth!
Sometimes the old days and old ways seem better. Maybe time smooths out the rough edges, as they say, but doggone it, I miss the Magnavox TV in my living room that was connected to a tall, ugly antenna outside my house in 1970s Martinsburg, West Virginia. The only channels we could get on that television set were 4, 5, 7, 9 from Washington (on a good day, channel 2 in Baltimore), and on the more exotic UHF side, WDCA channel 20 (where are you now, Captain 20 & Count Gore De Vol?). Life was good, or maybe ignorance was bliss. Who knew then the technological advances and headaches that were headed our way?
As a fan of the Washington Redskins, I knew that on a given NFL Sunday my game was going to be on channel 9, the CBS affiliate. If the ‘Skins were playing an AFC opponent, you might have to switch to channel 4. And if Washington was featured on a Monday Night broadcast, you would get the call from Howard Cossell, Frank Gifford, and Don Meredeth on Channel 7. There were NFL blackout rules then for the home games, but the Redskins were always sold out, and I believe we were outside the blackout area anyway. In any case, I don’t recall not ever being able to watch a game.
Fast forward to this past week, when, like millions of Americans, I looked forward to watching Team USA take on Bosnia in the knockout round of the FIFA World Cup. Also, like millions of Americans, I have umpteen streaming services. My menu includes Sling, Amazon Prime Video, and Netflix. No worries. Surely, I would be able to find the game somewhere. Wrong. The game was neither on Prime or Netflix, and my “Orange & Blue” Sling package did not have the channel that carried the game. I also noticed that Sling almost secretly removed my local channels from the package.
I then searched for a streaming service where I could find the game. And apparently, to get my local channels again, I needed to buy something called “Air TV’ ($80-$200) that connected to an outside antenna (that I also needed to buy). Not gonna happen. I already spend way too much money in streaming every month, and I don’t love soccer that much. But how am I going to watch my ‘Skins on Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays?
My journey took me to You Tube TV, where I can still get my local channels without extra gadgetry (for now), and also had the channel showing the USA soccer game. I signed up for a 3-week free trial, during which I will make the decision to keep You Tube TV or stay with Sling (unlikely). My new cocktail of steaming services will cost me more, but I will be able to watch the Burgundy and Gold on game day.
This is the confusing and costly dilemma of the modern-day sports fan. To follow one’s team means subscribing to a myriad of apps, streaming services, and local channel doohickeys. We have become addicted to sports, and like any addiction, we will pay whatever it costs to get our fix. There have been some recent hearings about the current state of the sports fan and streaming, but I wouldn’t expect much to come from them. The mighty NFL rules.
Meanwhile, a useless old-school antenna still towers above my rooftop, maybe because I was too lazy to take it down years ago. But maybe I left it up as a fond reminder of the good old days of 4, 5, 7, and 9.
Until the next visit from the Booth…where’s the remote?
RW
